Lost at School (40 page)

As fate would have it, effective leadership involves many of the ingredients of Collaborative Problem Solving, except that the ingredients are now being applied to adult-adult interactions. When leaders use Plan A to solve problems, whether in adult-adult or adult-child interactions, they unwittingly promote a Plan A culture. As you already know, Plan A begets Plan A.

Fortunately, Plan B begets Plan B. As noted by Dr. Ron Heifetz, author of
Leadership Without Easy Answers,
effective leaders aren’t “geniuses” and don’t have all the answers. They recognize that their primary role is to
organize action,
to challenge and mobilize people to face and tackle tough problems for which there are no simple, painless solutions, and to facilitate exploration of new ways of doing things. When people look only to the leader to address problems, they become dependent on the leader’s wisdom and the collective wisdom of the group is lost. In encouraging and energizing people to tackle tough problems, leaders elevate them from followers to problem-solvers.

Leaders also facilitate
invention.
They encourage debate, help people rethink, and help people recognize that simply redoubling their efforts to apply familiar strategies is rarely a productive approach. Often, solutions to persistent problems lie outside existing repertoires and therefore require outside-the-box thinking. Leaders encourage people to try new ideas on for size and explore novel solutions. They understand that the inclusion of different perspectives is essential to achieving durable, effective solutions.

Leaders help people
identify and stay focused on the difficult problems that need to be solved.
Who are the kids we aren’t reaching? What do they need from us? Why are we still doing things in a way that isn’t working for a lot of kids? What do we need to do differently to ensure they get what they need? What do
we
need—what training, what new structures—to accomplish the mission?

And if you’re thinking that leadership can come only from those who occupy positions of leadership, think again. While we often look for leadership at the head of the table, leaders more often emerge from the foot.

Q & A

Question:
Is CPS truly realistic in a middle, junior, or senior high school, where kids have multiple teachers who don’t always have a chance to communicate with one another?

Answer:
Many middle and high schools are organized in teams or learning communities these days, so that should make things a bit easier. Nothing takes the place of ensuring that staff has the time to talk about high-priority kids and meet periodically (preferably, at least weekly) to monitor the kids’ progress and modify the CPS Plan and Plan B Flow Chart. Again, the only models of care that don’t require good communication are the ineffective ones. CPS isn’t the answer to all the communication and scheduling problems that plague some middle, junior, and senior high schools, but it can help address communication problems in two ways: first, by providing staff with a framework for organizing and communicating information about a challenging kid; and second, through Plan B, which provides staff with the key ingredients they’ll need to tackle and solve their remaining communication problems. Perhaps even more daunting is the fact that secondary schools have to deal with a lot of kids whose challenges were misunderstood and poorly addressed in earlier grades. So it’s not just the problems that have piled up over time; it’s the kids, too. Where do you start? One kid and one problem at a time. Of course, the magnitude of this problem would be greatly reduced if the adults in the earlier grades started using CPS.

Question:
If I’m working within a teaching team, how do we determine which of us should be doing Collaborative Problem Solving with a given student on a particular problem?

Answer:
Early on, it will probably be whoever volunteers! But if you have several willing collaborators, you might want to give some thought to who has the best relationship with the student, who he’s already talking to, and, if the problem is related to interactions with one member of the team, whether it would be better for that member to approach the kid or potentially more productive for him to talk about it with a different member.

Question:
I’m a teacher, and I’ve been trying Plan B, but I don’t think I’d give myself a very good grade yet. When will I feel like I’ve mastered it?

Answer:
Maybe you’re a tough grader. But, early on, I wouldn’t be grading for proficiency; I’d be grading for bravery and effort. Like all new skills, the more you use Plan B, the more instinctive it becomes. And the mere fact that you recognize that you could do it even better—well, now, there’s an unmistakable sign of progress.

Question:
Yes, but how will I know I’m being successful?

Answer:
An improved relationship with a given child, his increased receptivity to talk with you and provide information, his increasing willingness to work collaboratively to make things better—these are signs of success you may see before you start to see actual progress on the problems you’re trying to solve and skills you’re trying to teach. The time and effort you put into the process is never wasted, even though it can take a while to see all the fruits of your labors.

Question:
I’m a school principal. I’ve been trying to help my teachers use Collaborative Problem Solving, and it’s gone pretty well. But I have a few teachers who just aren’t doing it. Advice?

Answer:
Try to figure out why, starting with the Empathy step, as in “I’ve noticed that you haven’t been participating much in our CPS work. What’s up?” They may feel they don’t have the skills to do Plan B yet. They may not be convinced about the rationale for Plan B. They may feel completely overwhelmed. They may be retiring soon and just don’t see the point. We won’t really know what their concerns are unless we ask. Then we can work toward ensuring that their concerns—and yours—are addressed.

Question:
I understand the need for parents and teachers to collaborate with each other. But as a teacher, what if I really can’t get the parents to work with me?

Answer:
Sorry for the repetition, but try to figure out why, with particular emphasis on the Empathy step. Remember, the goal of the Empathy step is to gather information so as to understand a person’s concerns or perspective. Maybe they’ve felt blamed for their kid’s
problems at school. Maybe they’re embarrassed that they’re not sure how to help their kid. Maybe they’ve been to so many mental health professionals, read so many books, and received so much advice—and still have nothing to show for it—that they’ve lost hope. Maybe they are so overwhelmed that trying to plug one more hole is simply beyond reach at the moment. If all else fails, never forget that you can still do a kid a lot of good in the six hours a day, five days a week, nine months a year that he’s in school.

Question:
Still, I can’t help but feel that sometimes a kid’s parents are undoing all that we’re working on at school.

Answer:
Feeling “undone” is usually a sign that people aren’t yet communicating and working together as well as they could.

Question:
Do you ever run into school personnel who refuse to participate in learning about CPS because they feel it goes outside of what they are paid to do?

Answer:
Yes, but I find it’s much more common for school personnel to be willing to go the extra mile, even without being paid for it, to learn new ways to help kids.

Question:
How do you incorporate Collaborative Problem Solving into an IEP?

Answer:
An IEP contains a great deal of information, but perhaps the most crucial components of an IEP are the problems or lagging skills being targeted for remediation and how these problems or lagging skills are to be addressed. If you’ve identified a kid’s lagging skills and triggers (through use of the ALSUP) and established a set of priorities (through use of the CPS Plan), you’re ready to incorporate those priorities into an IEP. You’re also ready to document how Plan B will be used to address those lagging skills and problems. Quite frankly, since IEPs tend to be fairly static documents, you’re likely to find the CPS Plan and Plan B Flow Chart to be far more effective at prioritizing and revising goals, tracking a kid’s progress, deciding what skills have been satisfactorily trained and problems resolved, and helping adults and the kid appreciate the progress that’s being made. IEPs become outdated rather quickly; the CPS Plan is a living, breathing plan of action.

Question:
How do poverty and culture impact the effectiveness of the CPS model?

Answer:
At the risk of seeming insensitive, I think poverty is overrated as an explanation for challenging behavior in kids (in his seminal book
Schools Without Failure,
Dr. William Glasser agreed). There are kids from impoverished circumstances who succeed. There are kids from wealthy backgrounds who don’t. Those who come from wealth often have parents who will stop at nothing to access good care and have the resources and wherewithal to find and pay for it. Some receive very poor care anyway. Data
¹
suggest that socioeconomic status is not a predictor of success with the CPS model.

People from similar backgrounds sometimes have an easier time connecting and communicating with each other. But I’ve yet to run into an ethnic group whose members don’t value having their concerns heard and addressed. In fact, look at anyplace in the world where there’s conflict right now and you’ll see one people whose concerns are being disregarded and another imposing its will. It’s very reliable.

Question:
How will I know if our school has “turned the corner” in our treatment of challenging kids?

Answer:
There’s no single benchmark signifying that you’ve “arrived,” given that improvement is an ongoing process. But there are some pretty clear indicators:

• The mentality toward challenging kids in your school is oriented toward lagging skills and unsolved problems, and people are actively using the ALSUP in their assessment of these kids and the CPS Plan and Plan B Flow Chart in monitoring their progress.

• People are skilled in and actively using Plan B.

• Structures supporting the use of CPS are in place, including mechanisms for (1) responding to behavior problems proactively rather than emergently; (2) communicating and collaborating across staff and with parents; (3) practicing, coaching, and monitoring Plan B skills; and (4) orienting new staff to the model.

• Mechanisms are in place for the continuous evaluation of school discipline, and discipline referrals, detentions, suspensions, and expulsions are on the decline.

• Adults understand that reducing challenging behavior is neither fleeting nor haphazard. Durable improvements occur when the kid’s concerns are understood and addressed, problems are solved, and skills are taught.

Question:
Does the CPS model apply to kids who shoot people in our schools?

Answer:
Remember our mantra:
Behind every challenging behavior is either an unsolved problem or lagging skill.
Kids who act on the idea of shooting people at school are clearly having difficulty coming up with more adaptive solutions to problems they’ve been unable to solve. In many instances where kids have resorted to extreme violence, people were surprised that the kid went to such extremes. But we all have what might be called a “threshold of adversity,” and we all have different levels of skill in dealing with adversity. When a person’s threshold of adversity exceeds his skills, the likelihood of violence is heightened. That’s why it’s crucial to keep the lines of communication open with every kid so you’re aware of his lagging skills and unsolved problems. Create a helping relationship. Work collaboratively toward solving the problems so the kid learns the skills.

The Story Continues …

Mrs. Westbrook buzzed into Mr. Middleton’s office. “Crystal Caldwell is here.”

Mr. Middleton had been mulling over Mr. Armstrong’s latest discipline referral, and had asked Crystal to come talk with him before he decided what to do. “OK, send her back.”

Mr. Middleton pointed Crystal to a chair as she entered his office. “Hi, Crystal.”

“What’d I do now?”

“Well, I have some more discipline referrals from Mr. Armstrong here, but I also wanted to see how you’re doing.”

“Why?”

“I’ve noticed you’ve been absent a lot, and sometimes that’s a sign that things aren’t going so well.”

“Look, whatever Armstrong is nailing me for, just give me the
speech about my future and needing to respect authority and do what you gotta do.”

“Well, I don’t
gotta
do anything. I’d like to do something that helps.”

Crystal smirked. “Helps?”

“I guess you’re not too convinced.”

“Look, I hate this place. If I was old enough, I’d drop out now.”

“Yes, that’s what I’ve heard. And from the looks of things, you’ve kind of started dropping out already. What do you do when you’re not at school?”

Crystal smirked again. “I have fun. I have friends. They think school sucks, too.”

“Does your grandma know who you’re hanging out with?”

“My grandma has no clue about anything I do. Why, what’s she gonna do about it?”

“These friends … they’re skipping school, too?”

“Some of ’em … most of ’em have dropped out already.”

“They’re a lot older than you?”

“Some of ’em. Is there a point to this?”

“Just interested in knowing what you’re up to when you’re not here.”

“Why, can you think of a good reason for me to be here?”

“Actually, no.”

Mr. Middleton’s honesty caught Crystal off guard. “What?”